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Shogi (Japanese chess)

Shogi(将棋,), is also known as Japanese chess. Shōgi means general's (shō 将) game (gi 棋). In the early years shogi was written as 象棋 (the same as Xiangqi, "elephant chess").

The earliest predecessor of the game, chaturanga, originated in India in the 6th century, and spread from China to Japan,
where it spawned a number of variants. Shogi in its present form was
played as early as the 16th century, while a direct ancestor without the
"drop rule" was recorded from 1210 in a historical document Nichūreki, which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period (ca 1120).

History

"The world's first chess variant Chaturanga arose in India in
approximately the seventh century AD. From there it migrated both
westward and northward, mutating along the way. The western branch became Shatranj in Arabia and Orthodox Chess in
Europe. The northern branch became Xiangqi in China and Changgi in
Korea. Sometime in the 10th to 12th centuries, 'chess' crossed the channel to
Japan where it spawned a number of interesting variants. One of these was called 'Small Shogi'. Eventually, Small Shogi (though it went through many forms) won out
over the larger variants and is now referred to simply as 'Shogi.' It is certain that Shogi in its present form was played in Japan as early as the 16th century.

It is not clear when chess was brought to Japan. The earliest generally accepted mention of shogi is Shin Saru Gakuki (新猿楽記)
(1058–1064) by Fujiwara Akihira. The oldest archaeological evidence is a
group of 16 shogi pieces excavated from the grounds of Kōfuku-ji in Nara Prefecture. As it was physically associated with a wooden tablet written on in the sixth year of Tenki
(1058), the pieces are thought to date from that period. These simple
pieces were cut from a writing plaque in the same five-sided shape as
modern pieces, with the names of the pieces written on them.

The dictionary of common folk culture, Nichūreki (二中歴) (ca. 1210–1221), a collection based on the two works Shōchūreki (掌中歴?) and Kaichūreki (懐中歴?), describes two forms of shogi, large (dai) shogi and small (shō) shogi. These are now called Heian shogi (or Heian small shogi) and Heian dai shogi. Heian small shogi is the version on which modern shogi is based, but the Nichūreki
states that one wins if one's opponent is reduced to a single king,
indicating that drops had not yet been introduced. According to Kōji
Shimizu, chief researcher at the Archaeological Institute of Kashihara,
Nara Prefecture, the names of the Heian shogi pieces keep those of chaturanga (general, elephant, horse, chariot and soldier), and add to them the five treasures of Buddhism (jade, gold, silver, katsura tree, and incense).

Around the 13th century the game of dai shogi developed, created by increasing the number of pieces in Heian shogi, as was sho shogi,
which added the rook, bishop, and drunken elephant from dai shogi to
Heian shogi. Around the 15th century, the rules of dai shogi were
simplified, creating the game of chu shogi
in a form close to the modern game. It is thought that the rules of
standard shogi were fixed in the 16th century, when the drunken elephant
was removed from the set of pieces. However, there is no clear record
of when drops were introduced.

The closest cousin of Shogi in the Chaturanga family is Makruk
of Thailand. Not only the similarity in distribution and movements of
the pieces but also the names of Shogi pieces suggest intimacy between
Shogi and Makruk by its Buddhist symbolism (Gold, Silver, Cassia and
Incense),[dubious– discuss]
which isn't recognised in Chinese chess at all. In fact, Chinese chess
and its East Asian variants are far remoter relatives than Makruk.
Though some early variants of Chaturanga more similar to Shogi and Makruk are known to have been played in Tang Dynasty China, they are thought to have been extinguished in Song Dynasty China and in East Asia except in Japan probably owing to the popularity of Chinese chess.

Chessboard

Shogi is played on a 9 by 9 uncheckered board. The three rows at
the other end of the board form a promotion zone. To the right the board is shown as a chessboard.

Pieces

The
king (or Jade General) moves like the Chess king: one
square horizontally or vertically or diagonally. There is no
castling.

The
Gold General has moves similar to the king, except that it
cannot take the back diagonals.

The
Silver General has moves similar to the king, except that it
cannot move horizontally or directly backwards. It can move one space
diagonally or forward.

The
knight (or Honored Horse) jumps like the Chess knight,
except that it can only go two spaces forward and one space
horizontally. It cannot jump back or to the side.

The
lance (or Fragrant Chariot) moves like the Chess rook,
except that it can only move forward. It cannot move horizontally or
backwards.

The
rook (or Flying Chariot) moves like the Chess rook. It
can go any number of spaces vertically or horizontally.

The
bishop (or Horned Chariot) moves like the Chess
bishop

The pawn moves one space forward only. Unlike the pawn in
Chess, this pawn does not capture diagonally. It does not have the
option to go two on its first move. There is no en passant
capture.

Promotion

In Chess, pawns can be promoted. In Shogi, all pieces except the
king and the gold general can be promoted.

The promoted pawn,
promoted lance, promoted knight, and promoted silver general all have
the moves of the gold general.

The promoted rook becomes Dragon King (not to be confused with
the king). It has the moves of the rook and the king.

The promoted bishop becomes Dragon Horse (not to be confused
with the knight). It has the moves of the bishop and the king.

Promotion can happen at the end of any move in which the piece
enters, exits, or moves within the three-row promotion zone. Pawn and
lance must be promoted when reaching the 9th row. Knight must be
promoted when reaching the 8th or 9th row.

Drops

The most distinctive feature of Shogi is that captured pieces can
be returned to play. Captured pieces change to the captor's color,
and can be placed on an empty square (or "dropped") instead of moving
a piece. Pieces are always dropped in their unpromoted state.

Pawns, lances, and knights cannot be dropped in the 9th row.
Knights cannot be dropped in the 8th row.

You cannot drop a pawn into a column (or file) that already
contains one of your unpromoted pawns.

A pawn cannot be dropped to give checkmate, although a pawn can be
dropped to give check. Any other piece can be dropped to give
checkmate.

Checkmate and winning the game

When a player makes a move such that the opposing king could be captured on the following turn, the move is said to give check to the king; the king is said to be in check.
If a player's king is in check and no legal move by that player will
get the king out of check (which is necessary whenever possible), the checking move is also checkmate (tsumi
詰み) and effectively wins the game. The losing player should resign out
of courtesy at this point, although in practice this rarely happens, as a
player will concede defeat as soon as loss is inevitable.

To give the warning "check!" in Japanese, one says "ōte!" (王手). However, this is an influence of international chess and is not required, even as a courtesy.

In professional and serious amateur games, a player who makes an illegal move loses immediately.

There are two other possible, if uncommon, ways for a game to end: repetition (千日手 sennichite) and impasse (持将棋 jishōgi).

If the same game position occurs four times with the same player to play (formerly three times),
the game is considered a draw. For two positions to be considered the
same, the pieces in hand must be the same as well as the positions on
the board. However, if this occurs with one player giving perpetual
check, then that player loses.

The game reaches an impasse if both kings have advanced into their
respective promotion zones and neither player can hope to mate the other
or to gain any further material. If this happens, the winner is decided
as follows: Each rook or bishop scores 5 points for the owning player,
and all other pieces except kings score 1 point each. (Promotions are
ignored for the purposes of scoring.) A player scoring fewer than 24
points loses. (If neither player has fewer than 24, the game is no
contest—a draw.) Jishōgi is considered an outcome in its own right rather than no contest, but there is no practical difference.

As this impasse generally needs to be agreed on for the rule to be
invoked, a player may refuse to do so, on the grounds that he/she could
gain further material or position before an outcome has to be decided.
If that happens, one player may force jishōgi upon getting his king and all his pieces protected in the promotion zone.

In professional tournaments the rules typically require drawn games
to be replayed with colours (sides) reversed, possibly with reduced time
limits. This is rare compared to chess and xiangqi, occurring at a rate of 1-2% even in amateur games. The 1982 Meijin title match between Nakahara Makoto and Kato Hifumi was unusual in this regard, with jishōgi
in the first game (only the fifth draw in the then 40-year history of
the tournament), a game which lasted for an unusual 223 moves (not
counting in pairs of moves), with an astounding 114 minutes spent
pondering a single move, and sennichite in the sixth and eighth
games. Thus this best-of-seven match lasted ten games and took over
three months to finish; Black did not lose a single game and the
eventual victor was Katō at 4-3.